The tale of a strawhat
by kane alexis
Summary: "If he could, he would rail and wail at that drunkard of a man for abandoning him with this cry-baby. The boy was nothing but weak with his loud crying and loud mouth and loud everything." One shot. A bit AU-ish maybe. Ah, whatever.


Disclaimer: There is very little I own for myself and one piece definitely doesn't come up in the list.

* * *

THE TALE OF A STRAWHAT

* * *

He had an ordinary beginning.

Not the flashy kind with dramatic declarations or the secret kind of being hidden in the nook of some far off remote village or the grand kind with fireworks and parades.

He was born in the arms of an old woman with deep lines sketching her kind face and frail thin arms. The woman hummed an odd tune as she spun him out of golden hay and finished with a blood red ribbon for embellishment.

And just like that he was born.

He sat on the old woman's head with great glee and gazed upon the colourful world, lending brightness to the old woman's tired face and bore his part of sharing her life, her pain and her everything.

She would hum many odd little songs as she wandered through cities and villages in her ragged old clothes and he would dance along on her head, ignoring the hostile world in their little bubble of strength.

He didn't have a name nor did he knew anything about the woman who carried her, he didn't know anything about the big _big_ world that stretched around him in vivid colours and sounds but he was happy under the warm sun, happy at the little songs and happy at just _being_.

...

She was a tall girl with long dark hair and big dark eyes.

She bumbles out of nowhere with a great bright grin and a good many guys running after her yelling and screaming, "STOP THIEF!PAY FOR OUR FOOD!"

The girl just laughs out loud, hair flying wildly behind her as she easily kept pace and he finds himself entranced.

He snapped out of it when the men tumble into them. The woman is easily taken down and even though her arms instinctively reach for him, he is already airborne and then trampled under people and he can feel the pain of being crushed and tore.

The next thing he feels is being picked up with gentle hands and held there. He gazed with wonder at the groaning men littered around them.

"Are you alright, obaasan?"

She grins a wide grin at the slightly stunned woman and he would grin like that if he could, because he could feel she was something. What he didn't know but something for sure.

...

At the end of the day, he sits on her head, the girl with the smile as bright and wide as the world itself.

...

Her name was Andie.

She was like the thunderstorm that raged with a ferocious strength that wasn't afraid of her strength or her brilliance.

He gains many more tears and cuts, but he doesn't fade as he watched the girl run about and cause chaos. He watches as the girl fights and punches for her dream.

To be free and forever and ever strong.

She a brother, he notices, a big guy with broad shoulders and the same wide grin and that infallible spirit. He tags along with them and he can't but think that the world better watch out for the storm.

She grins at him fondly, the boy with the moustache, the one who proclaims to be the pirate king. She laughs at him, calling him weak with the air of no malice, and ruffles his hair even as the boy puffs up in embarrassment.

Between the two of them, he watches as the world bends down to them and their vows, their too wide grins and freedom.

She takes him out to the oceans one day, with their strong saline winds and the clear deep waters. And she shouts out to skies with a loud bellowing voice,

"I'M GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!"

And that's the end of that.

But he soon found out that _his_ path would much _more_ magnificent.

...

He was older this time with his ends slightly fraying and the old ribbon slightly crinkled from the salt water.

But he isn't faded or dull, the bright golden still rivalled the sun and he is proud of the scars that litter his body.

After all, he belonged to the pirate king.

Huh, who knew that the boy with that grin the same as Andie, the boy who babbled on and on about freedom and dreams and will would ever amount to anything.

But here he was, sitting with pride, golden against the bright blue sky, with the wide oceans around him and stronger because of it.

The boy had grown up into the same tempered young man with the same zeal for freedom and dreams. Except now he had a whole crew of people to stand behind him and fight alongside him.

He watches with silent eyes, as the young man travelled around the world with that infamous grin and armed with nothing but people he trusted and his dream.

He meets many people, makes many enemies and loses some fights and wins some others, gains many a allies. The edges grow even more frayed as the scratches litter and he has never felt more treasured.

They travelled to both the skies and the oceans, with the merry voice of the crew echoing across the seas and his captain laughing that same laugh his predecessor did.

...

The red haired boy glared at his captain with a fierceness that surprised many.

"You can't be serious?!" he all but spits at the taller broader man.

Even as the rest the crew stared with astonished expressions, he could feel a sliver of admiration run through him.

" You would stand against the captain?"

The boy with the fierce eyes trembles a bit at this, but he straightens with determination,

"You can do whatever you want with me but I will _never_ abandon my friends, you old geezer"

There was a beat of silence against the sound of crashing waves, before a bellowing laugh rung out, the same arrogant one that made him feel ridiculously smug for being on his side.

The red haired boy watched with obvious confusion as his captain walked forward with that wide grin.

...

He supposes it's a sort of sharing of wills, as he sits on the infamous red hair of the 'red haired Shanks'.

A promise. A vow. He thought.

...

The red haired man, because he's no longer that snot nosed little boy, becomes a legend. Carrying forward that will of the utterly and wonderfully insane.

The man is different, he felt; avoids battles and fights, and as a result, he becomes suffused with the smell of alcohol and the number of tears don't increase all that much.

He watches as the red haired man laughed and mocked the world in the stead of his captain.

Though the adventures are still there, amidst the songs and drinks and spats with men in white, it's more of a peaceful life.

And he supposes that he's nearing his peak.

...

In hindsight, he would regret ever thinking about thinking that thought.

...

The boy is short. And small.

And did he mention stupid?

Because the boy _made_ that word, with his big blank bug eyes and what with calling everything a mystery.

If he could, he would rail and wail at that drunkard of a man for abandoning him with this cry-baby. The boy was nothing but weak with his loud crying and loud mouth and loud _everything._

He once belonged with the _real_ pirate king, for heaven's sakes, surely his legacy deserved better!

Monkey. D Luffy.

What a stupid name, he thought contemptuously.

...

It took the brat less than two weeks to charm him.

...

He watched as the small boy with the dream to be the pirate king, pursued the two boys, who constantly abandoned him, even going so far as actively harming him.

He wanted to shout at those two idiots for their cruelty but since he couldn't, he settled for falling forward on the brat's face, to shield him against the world.

...

He should've known that the boy would be something of a lunatic. A very lucky and persistent lunatic.

Because now the three are sworn brothers.

" _We're brothers!"_

...

He feels the pain of being pulled apart with immense force, but he doesn't care.

Maybe it's because he's always been with people who were too strong for their own good, but this boy, with his crippling fear of loneliness and a burning desire for a family and a dream bigger than himself, was something that tugged at him, made him feel beyond anything he felt with all before him.

He can feel the tears wet the straw and those tiny fingers digging into his almost nonexistent edges, and he feels the wails that rocked the small body, as the littlest brother cried for his older brother.

" _Please don't die Ace!"_

And as the boy cried his resolution of being stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and _stronger_ to protect his own, he knew one thing for certain.

For better or worse he would remain by this little boy's side till the end.

He would be Luffy' s straw hat.

...

The two dark haired boys grow up together and with the pride of a parent, he watched the elder protect and teach and guard the younger. Sometimes with insults, other times with a tenderness laced with befuddled anger.

The younger grows up into a fine young lad with a grin wider than even Roger's and a dream that made people stop and stare. He exudes a bright light like no other and he felt at home in its warmth.

The mad laughter of the two brothers and the way that smile stretched too big for his small face, the way the elder would stare at him with something akin to wonder, like, " _What did I do to deserve you?"_ and the way they forced the world to stop spinning around the sun and instead spin around them made him tremble with something like a great anticipation.

The world will crumble in their wake.

...

Luffy grows into a slim gangly little thing with a strength that belied his slender form, and with a grin that could warm an entire island.

But he's still as stupid as ever.

Seriously? A _freaking_ whirlpool? And all he can think of is a _barrel_!

...

He's more holes than straw at this point, the edges frayed to almost wisps of his former glory. But he can't find it in himself to resent the boy with the way he looks like this battered old thing was an irremovable and irrevocable part of him and his insane little family.

Well, maybe he is.

It's the Straw hat pirates after all.

...

He is annoyed with people for thinking of Roger when they hear his loud proclamation of freedom and adventure and his too wide grin and courage.

He respected Roger but _Luffy_ is so much more.

He wants to tell them that, no, this isn't a man who lived an era before.

No, this is a boy with a smile that warmed people. A small thing with a will that shook mountains. A boy who understood his dreams but held his family _above_ it.

What was that queer little word that he loved to use?

Ah. _Nakama_.

Roger may have trusted his crew but Luffy' s crew _belonged_ with him.

The green haired swordsman with the terrible sense of direction but would somehow always find his way to his captain, no matter where.

The red haired thief who hated pirates but joined Luffy anyway.

The long nosed boy who would shake at the sight of a spider but would fight ridiculously strong enemies for the sake of his captain.

The blonde boy with the curly brows who would sneer and kick the lovable glutton with viciousness but would beg his captain to eat when Luffy was sick and couldn't eat.

The blue haired princess who cried just like Luffy did but was ready to abandon all her riches and power for joining him.

The small furry doctor who thought himself to be a monster unfit for the world to see, but who joined him nevertheless for he was _Luffy'_ s monster.

The dark haired villainess who couldn't stand his kindness and had to abandon her desire to die to join him in his adventures.

The shipwright who wouldn't join him at first but soon proudly declared _Sunny_ to be the ship of the pirate king.

The lonely musician who understood the frailty of life and the pain of _forever_ but still accepted him as his captain.

A small ship that stood by his constant penchant for trouble and true to her name, died happily for her family.

And finally her larger successor who was never to be born but was and is now a part of a lunatic little family and couldn't be happier.

Roger was Roger and Luffy was Luffy.

But if he had to choose, it would be the small boy with a heart as deep and clear as the tropical oceans, because Luffy, though valued his dream, understood that family _always_ came first.

To him, his dream could crumble in a heartbeat and he would still smile but touch his nakama and suddenly he isn't a harmless dewy eyed naive teenager, but the captain of the Straw hat pirates.

And his nakama share the same notion, albeit in a slightly less vocal way than him.

...

Luffy is wrapped in bandages, every inch of his body is white from them as he holds his hand to his chest with the stitched and worn straw hat and mourns for the death of a part of soul.

The orange brother who protected him with his fire and died by fire to protect his precious little brother.

And he feels the ache in the small chest, where the wound lay, the wound that would scar him forever with the evil in the world.

And if the fingers clutch a bit tighter than his calm face suggested, then, well, it wasn't like anyone saw.

...

He sits upon a rock, bearing everything because he knew he would. He would wait. For his captain to grow stronger and brighter.

And he does return.

With a scar that stretched over his entire chest that was proudly left open for the world to see.

The expanse of ruined skin a testament that evil could hamper but never truly destroy light. That for all its heat and darkness and cruelty and pain, it couldn't stop the beat of the heart within.

He reaches forward with that grin, that turned the world and broke its laws with careless candour.

And he's back where he belongs.

...

He can feel the tall blonde man run his fingers along the frayed rim and not for the first time wished he could scream and yell.

To scream the hurt his captain suffered for this man he thought to be lost. To yell the tears he shed when he thought no one saw.

But he easily recognises fondness and that same awe Ace and Zoro and Sanji and Nami and Ussop and Chopper and Robin and Brook and Vivi and Franky shared, and the familiar flashes of immense guilt and _love_ and _pride_ and he knows he's lost.

He contents himself with Luffy 's happy chatter and regained appetite.

...

It's after many years of adventures and songs and fights and games and a title of the Pirate king that the old drunkard returns.

The man grins that carefree grin and plucks the now almost completely ruined old hat from the still small grinning young man and shakes his head.

"So you really did make it, huh, Anchor?"

The old nickname doesn't bother the grinning boy, because, well, now he didn't ever have to fear the sea, his nakama would reach him before any wave ever could.

And the red haired man reaches back and carefully jams it back down.

"..Shanks..?" the boy peeks confusedly from beneath the edges.

But the red haired Yonko doesn't reply, instead turned on his heel with that stupid grin. And Luffy holds onto the hat with gentle hands, just like all those years ago and slowly smiles to himself.

He rockets himself back to his nakama and they grin at him knowingly, basking in the light that was Luffy, and he shouts out,

"EVERYONE! LET'S GO!"

And he sits on his captain's head, already looking forward to the next adventure, safe in the knowledge that no one would ever make him part from his family.

After all, what would the Straw Hats be with their Straw Hat?

* * *

A/N:Wow, that was weird. I have no clue where this came from. A sentient hat. Really, I outdo myself.

Oh well.

Hmm...yeah, so Andie and that thing with Shanks and Roger? Totally my thing. NOT CANON.

Thanks for reading!


End file.
